Eventually she realizes the sobbing isn’t working, so she asks me if I’m going to do anything for her. I say no, because it was her behavior that caused all of this to begin with.

So she sobs, “But…but…but I’m SAD!!!!”

That’s kind of how I feel right now. I realize, as a France fan, that I have no right to feel a need to be comforted. But…but…but I’m SAD!!!!

This isn’t the way I wanted qualifying to end. If we’d won legitimately, I could be legitimately celebrating and it would be wonderful. If we’d lost, I could be legitimately commiserating, which I think would actually feel better. If we’d even outplayed Ireland on Wednesday, it might feel like a karmic victory and be acceptable. As it is, though, we’re left with a kind of sad limbo. To paraphrase Bixente Lizarazu, I’m happy they qualified, but don’t feel like I can party.

Not sure where the road back is. Eventually I’m sure we’ll all come to accept this, and to be grateful France is in WC 2010.

Or we’ll be grateful until, under the tutelage of Domenech, they again go out in the group stage.

For now, though? For now, I’m just sad.

As a first step back, if you’re looking to remind yourself that France does have some legit talent, please watch this video of all France’s goals in qualifying, made by our very own commenter Jean-François. (This video has gotten over 40,000 pageviews since the game and become something of a lightning rod for everybody’s feelings about the game and the goal. Feel free to leave your own comments.)

And by special request: The photo I originally posted. Which depicts your mood better?

Good performances: Sagna, Evra, Gallas, Lloris, Anelka
Poor: Henry, A. Diarra
Woeful: Gignac, Gourcuff
Shocking: Squillaci, L. Diarra, Domenech

Govou and Malouda had decent runs as substitutes. Govou was definitely an improvement over Gignac who he replaced.

I could almost make a category below shocking for L. Diarra, diabolical maybe, but he did win back the ball once in a while. The number of times he gave it away, and so casually, and so close to the France goal, and the woeful passing, and the countless cynical fouls – it was a meltdown.

Squillaci replaced Escude early on after Escude was injured. He took an elbow in the nose from Evra when they both went for a header, and Escude was losing too much blood to come back on. This incident wasn’t even close to one of France’s low points.

Squillaci looked low on confidence, and during his time on the pitch in the first half especially, he looked extremely vulnerable.

It was a long match, 120 minutes, and it was full of incidents, far too many to recount. We talked after the last match about Abidal nearly gifting Ireland a goal. Of course we were incensed, but it was a minor infraction compared to some of the midfield play tonight.

France are through to the World Cup, but someone needs to get a hold of a drawing board. They can’t “go back” to the drawing board, because they clearly hadn’t used one.

Gourcuff has a nice touch on the ball, and exciting movement in possession, but his passing was terrible.

France were very lucky to survive. I said I would be very surprised if Ireland outplayed France. I was surprised how poor France were. And Ireland deserved to win. But Ireland also have themselves to blame for not converting more of the many chances offered to them by France’s midfield. The goal they did score was a peach – carving France open. Even at that point, it was bad, France had a terrible start, but there was worse to come.

Henry looked like a spent force. The match was hugely frustrating, and it must be gut-wrenching for Henry to be losing his athleticism so quickly, so it wasn’t surprising that he would resort to a deliberate handball in the box, but it was a surprise that the referees didn’t notice.

Henry kept a freekick from going out for a goalkick with his hand, and we all know how much motor control we have with those digits, and that wonderful opposable thumb – it was no wonder that he was able to place the ball perfectly on his right boot to cross to Gallas who nodded in the goal.

That was very lucky for France. They might have gone through anyway, on penalties.

For such a bizzare match, the referee did impressively well for most of it. Obviously he and his assistants screwed Ireland over by not calling Henry’s handball, and for not giving L. Diarra a couple yellow cards for countless cheap fouls; and Malouda didn’t deserve his yellow; but they got so many things right, like ignoring dives; but that handball was a big miss.

It was such a mixed night, because performance-wise, I think it was a new low for the Domenech era, but at the same time, obviously, it’s the night that France secured passage to the World Cup.

I’m so glad France will be going to South Africa.

I hope they never play that poorly again.

And if you have a working illicit stream, please leave that in the comments as well. It looks like there will be multiple options. Myp2p.eu is a good starting point.

I am every bit as nervous as the rest of you. I’m fairly certain France can do this, but… Nothing’s ever certain till it’s certain, is it?

Expected lineup is the same as Saturday, with the exception of Julien Escude stepping in for the injure Eric Abidal in central defense. Which makes me a little nervous. (No own-goals today, okay, Julien?)

Lloris; Sagna, Gallas, Escude, Evra; A. Diarra, L. Diarra; Anelka, Gourcuff, Henry; Gignac

Okay, gents. You can do this.

Allez les bleus!

I’m getting a little tired of reading that this France side aren’t “a spot” on the 1998-2000 side. Time for the lads to debunk that nasty sentiment; and a masterclass today would be a good start.

Join Laurie on this site later today (she’s never missed a match before, and I wouldn’t expect her to start now) for a bit of pre -, during -, and post-match banter (and ranting and raving).

I really enjoy the discussions in the comments, so thank you very much to everyone who joins in. There’s been a lot of good discussion about the performance in the first leg, but now that the second leg is upon us, I find that the memory of the performance is quickly fading, leaving only one solitary memory: we won away from home 1-0!

Sarah, who blogs about Olympique de Marseille on the Offside, talked to us about helping out with this site. I immediately responded that we could use the help, and only later realized that a substantial portion of my brain prematurely assumes France will advance. My stomach lurched, and I had to take deep long breaths, and remind myself that we could be in for a huge disappointment.

France were the better team, but they weren’t firing on all cylinders, so they’ll now need to get a result in the second leg in Paris.

The formation didn’t always hold it’s shape, but it was something like this:

Gignac
Henry Gourcuff Anelka
A. Diarra L. Diarra
Evra Abidal Gallas Sagna
Lloris

The Bordeaux players, A. Diarra and Gourcuff, were both fairly quiet. Gourcuff definitely had a few promising touches, but for the most part he was crowded out of the match, and striker Nicolas Anelka took over the midfield playmaking duties.

Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra was heavily involved, but his involvement, especially early in the match, mostly involved failed pass attempts. At one point, I think he turned the ball over in four consecutive sequences.

Anelka is in a new phase of his career. He seems to be integral to England league leaders Chelsea, and overnight he’s become a roaming creator for club and country, instead of the forward trying to break the offside trap. I don’t quite know what’s going on with him and his position at the moment, but he was probably France’s best player against Ireland.

Barcelona’s Thierry Henry, France’s captain, is still one of France’s best players, but the 2003 Thierry Henry is a fading memory. I thought he was in good scoring positions a couple times against Ireland when he didn’t even try to score. Back when he was scoring 20 to 30 league goals per season, he could exploit little gaps to great effect, and score, assist, or draw a penalty. Now it looks like he doesn’t even try to take on players who he would have beaten easily a few years ago. Still, he’s good on the ball, was providing a good outlet wide left yesterday, and he looked dangerous at times.

Anelka got the goal during the second half. It took a wicked deflection off an Ireland player and sneaked inside the post. That opened the floodgates a bit, and it looked like Gignac might add one or two, but the other goals never came, and in the end, France were lucky to not to concede, so it’s a good result, if not quite representative of how much better France were.

No big complaints with the defense, and A. Diarra might have been quietly effective at helping with that effort. France, including Lloris, had to make a few stops, so overall, it was a great result to keep a clean sheet, and to get the away win. (Reading the comments from the previous post, I was reminded of an Abidal giveaway that could have been costly, but overall I’m not personally that worried by Abidal. He almost cost us a goal yesterday, and he’s had his share of clangers, but he’s also been gaining experience for France and Barcelona, and there’s no clear-cut case that someone else would be a better option.)

Any betting neutral would probably be comfortable putting money on France to advance to the World Cup in South Africa, but Ireland obviously still have a chance to progress with some good luck in Paris. I’d be very surprised if Ireland outplayed France, so I’m mostly worried about costly France mistakes in the second leg. And while my worries do tend to creep out first, especially when I’m writing, and trying to be measured in my France fandom, I do think that France will probably control the second leg, and get another victory.

We’ll know soon enough because the match is on Wednesday.

So President Nicolas Sarkozy went on Facebook to wish les Bleus good luck.

Pretty sure that will be all it takes to push them over the top.

GFC over at The Beantown Frog is cautiously optimistic about this leg of the match, predicting a 1-0 win. I’m hoping he’s right. But everybody also recognizes that Ireland is the kind of team that gives France fits: defensive, strong on counters, good on set pieces, and with excellent goalkeeping.

And let’s not forget that our top two goalkeepers gave up ten goals between them last weekend. That can’t be good for the ol’ self-confidence.

L’Equipe is referring to this match as “L’heure des deux Diarra,” given that Toulalan is injured and it’s looking like Alou and Lassana Diarra will be our DM pair.

Predicted lineup:

Lloris – Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra – A. Diarra, L. Diarra – Anelka, Gourcuff, Henry – Gignac.

In the US, TV5Monde is playing the match live. Setanta will be broadcasting it delayed. If you have a working stream, please leave the link in the comments.

And be sure to stop by here and leave your thoughts as the game progresses.

Ireland defender Richard Dunne said, “You can see the reaction of the people at the tennis (Paris Masters), when they put his (Domenech) face on the big screen. The whole place just booed him and his own players laughed at him.”

Extraordinary.

There’s Domenech trying to enjoy tennis when a stadium full of people start booing him; and even his own players start laughing at him.

Did Dunne see this all on the telly or was he there? Did they show the players laughing at Domenech on the big screen?

Few people could elicit boos by having their face put on the big screen at a tennis match. Dunne’s description of events is compelling, and if true, I can’t help but want to hear more about this extraordinary ostracizing of Domenech. Is there YouTube footage of this event? Poor Domenech. It sounds like things went all wrong for him.

The subtext to Dunne’s quotes is that he himself doesn’t hold Domenech in high regard, and considers his participation in the World Cup playoff as a bonus for Ireland.

With everyone counting him out, will Doms be the comeback kid, and prove them all wrong?

Unsurprisingly, there aren’t any big surprises in the squad. Aly “The Teeth” Cissokho gets his first call-up, but it was somewhat expected in light of Gaël Clichy’s injury. Loïc Remy gets the nod in favor of Bafetimbi Gomis, but again, that’s not really surprising because Les Bleus are currently short on wide players. Yoann Gourcuff and Sidney Govou return after missing out on the last qualifiers due to injury.

More notable are the absences. The biggest one is Patrick Vieira, who hasn’t been playing regularly at his club and has also been struggling on and off with injuries. Though his recent performances were positive, Domenech didn’t think it was enough to justify his inclusion in the squad (Vieira is not happy about that, btw). Franck Ribery is still out due to a knee injury, and despite Samir Nasri recently making his comeback for Arsenal after a long injury layoff, he was left out as well.

Totally unrelated, but here is an interesting fact I discovered the other day: Sidney Govou has scored 10 goals for France in 42 appearances. Compare that to Nicolas Anelka, who’s scored 13 goals in 61 appearances. Three less goals with 20 less appearances – and I’m sure Anelka has had more starts as well. It’s weird to think about Govou in a productive light, isn’t it?

Full list after the jump.

Gardiens de But
Cédric Carrasso (Bordeaux)
Hugo Lloris (Lyon)
Stève Mandanda (Marseille)

Défenseurs
Eric Abidal (Barcelona)
Aly Cissokho (Lyon)
Julien Escude (Sevilla)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
Rod Fanni (Rennes)
William Gallas (Arsenal)
Bakary Sagna (Arsenal)
Sébastien Squillaci (Sevilla)

Milieux de terrain
Abou Diaby (Arsenal)
Alou Diarra (Bordeaux)
Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid)
Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)
Moussa Sissoko (Toulouse)
Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon)

Attaquants
Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
André-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse)
Sidney Govou (Lyon)
Thierry Henry (Barcelona)
Loïc Remy (Nice)

You know. The ones who get all the press.

Too bad you can’t play a match on paper.

Gardiens de but
Shay Given (Manchester City, Ang)
Keiren Westwood (Conventry City, Ang)
Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe United, Ang)

Défenseurs
John O’Shea (Manchester United, Ang)
Richard Dunne (Aston Villa, Ang)
Stephen Kelly (Fulham, Ang)
Kevin Kilbane (Hull City, Ang)
Eddie Nolan (Preston North End, Ang)
Sean St. Ledger (Middlesbrough, Ang)
Paul McShane (Hull City, Ang)
Darren O’Dea (Reading, Ang)

Milieux de terrain
Aiden McGeady (Celtic Glasgow, Eco)
Damien Duff (Fulham, Ang)
Darron Gibson (Manchester United, Ang)
Glenn Whelan (Stoke City, Ang)
Keith Andrews (Blackburn Rovers, Ang)
Liam Miller (Hibernian, Eco)
Stephen Hunt (Hull City, Ang)
Andy Keogh (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Liam Lawrence (Stoke City, Ang)

Attaquants
Kevin Doyle (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspurs, Ang)
Shane Long (Reading, Ang)
Leon Best (Coventry Cirty, Ang)
Anthony Stokes (Hibernian, Eco)

And Raymond Domenech is kissing the boots of UEFA for deciding to seed the draw.

France, the 1998 world champions, 2000 European champions and beaten World Cup finalists in 2006, will have the advantage of playing the second leg on home soil against an Ireland side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni.

While France, the highest ranked team in the playoffs at nine, will be favourites, the pressure will be on coach Raymond Domenech who came underfire during a qualifying tournament in which they were outshone by group winners Serbia.

He will be wary of an Ireland side who went through a qualifying group containing world champions Italy and Bulgaria without losing a match.

“We know what we have to do,” Domenech told RTL radio. “The goal was always to qualify for the World Cup, whoever we faced. We know Ireland. They’re very much like England, they all play in the Premier League.

NO SURPRISES

“The France players know them well from having played either with or against them. There won’t be any surprises. We know what’s coming.

“They’re a team who have not lost in qualifying, who drew with Italy in their last game after conceding a late goal. We know they’re tough, but so are we.”

Let’s not get overconfident; this won’t be a cakewalk. They’re going to play defensively and try to take it on set pieces. France frequently sucks against both defensive teams and set pieces.

But at least it’s not Russia.